Employee Concerns Program

Reporting Employee Concerns is an important part of our work. Office of Science employees and any contractor or subcontractor fulfilling our mission have the right and responsibility to report concerns relating to the environment, safety, health, or management of Department operations. Free and open expression of Energy Department Federal and contractor and subcontractor employee concerns is essential to safe and efficient accomplishment of the Energy Department's missions. The Employee Concerns Program is designed to:

Encourage open communication;

Inform employees of the proper forum for consideration of their concerns;

Ensure employees can raise issues without fearing reprisal;

Address employee concerns in a timely and objective manner; and

Provide employees an avenue for consideration of concerns that fall outside existing systems.

Employees are encouraged to seek resolution of such concerns with SC Line Management, their supervisors, or to use established concern or complaint resolution systems (e.g., union representative, safety or quality organizations, or contractor employee concerns programs). To that end, DOE has established a policy that gives each employee the right, without fear of reprisal, to raise concerns about work related issues.

The ECP Staff at the ISC and the Site Offices can also provide additional assistance if the established means to resolve concerns are unknown or unavailable, were tried but did not work satisfactorily, cannot deal effectively with a concern, or would cause fear of retaliation. Points of contact are shown below.